Closet



(No Model.)

S. H. NUTTING, E. PARSONS &; G. W. BOWER.v

CLOSET.

No. 425,083; Patented Apr. 8. 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL H. NUTTING AND EDVARD PARSONS, OF EAST \VINDSOR, AND GILES \V. BOXVER, OF ENFIELD, CONNECTICUT.

CLOSET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 425,083, dated April 8, 1890.

Application filed September 18, 1889. $erial No. 324,347. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, SAMUEL H. NUTTING and EDWARD PARSONS, of the town of East \Vindsor, in Hartford county, in the State of Connecticut, and GILES WV. BOWER, of Enfield, in said county and State, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Closcts, which improvements are described in the following specification and are illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

Our invention relates to that class of private apartments which are commonly used as emunctories, including earth closets, waterclosets, and dry closets. It has been observed that operatives in mills and factories sometimes use these necessary resorts during workmg hours as placesfor social conversation, crocheting, and other forms of relaxation or amusement, which are unprofitable to their employers. When this practice becomes popular in a shop where many operatives are employed, the aggregate resulting injury to the employer becomes too considerable to be disregarded. It is the object of the present invention to obviate this mischief by discouraging in an effectual and unobject-ionable manner the injurious practice to which allusion has been made. In view of the circumstance that this practice chiefly occurs where two or more persons enter or occupy a single apartment of the described character at one and the same time, the method by which we seek to accomplish the specified object of our invention consists in limitingto any desired or predetermined extent the number of persons who are permitted to occupy such an apartment at any one time. In the employment of this method we make use of a rotary door, a locking device which is adapted to engage such door, mechanism for weighing the occupants of the apartment, and connecting mechanism whereby such locking device is caused to engage or to disengage such door, according to the load which is for the time being imposed upon such weighing mechanism.

The best manner in which we have contemplated applying the principle of our invention is illustrated in said drawings, in which- Figures 1 and 2 are a front view and a top View, respectively, of an apartment of the described character with the door shut. Fig. 3

is a front view of the same with the doorhalf open and with parts removed to show construction. Fig.4isa top view of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a top View of the weighing mechanism, including the sills and fioorsupports of the apartment.

In the views the numerals 1 and 2 denote, respectively, the bottom sills and the top sills of a rectangular closet, having vertical side walls 3 and a rear wall 1. In the back part of the closet, contiguous to the middle wall 4, seat 5 is placed in the usual manner at a convenient height above the rectangular floor 6. This floor, being unattached to walls 3 and 4, is supported in ahorizontal position upon two parallel floor-joists 7. Each joist 7 in turn is supported upon two knife-edges 8, which are carried by levers 9. The four levers 9, which are of uniform description, are loosely supported at one end by a socket-piece 11, from which they radiate, and at the other end by knife-edges 10. This socket-piece, which is located under the middle of floor 6, has four chambers, one for the accommodation of each of said levers 9, and is sharpened at its lower extremity to a point, which rests in a depression or aperture in the terminal portion of a lever 12, as shown in Fig. 3. Lever 12, resting upon knife-edge 13, is provided with an adjustable weight 14, having a setscrew 24, and is connected by a vertical rod 15 with a slotted lever 16, which is mounted at the top of the closet. Rod 15 is provided with a terminal screw-thread and a nut 28, for purposes of adjustment. Lever 16 is armed with a'pin 17, reciprocable vertically in a hole through the top sill 2.

The corners in the closet are partitioned off from the front portion of the same, so as to leave for occupancy forward of the seat a semi-cylindrical space only, seen in Figs. 2, 3, and 4.

The front opening of the closet is provided with a door 18, which. is of uniform semicircular horizontal section. This door, which for the sake of lightness is made hollow, is pivoted vertically in the middle of the otherwise open entrance to the closet by means of a pin 19, which passes through the front top sill 2, and by means of a hub 20, which passes through a hole in the floor G and rests in a socket 25 in the middle of front sill 1. The upper semicircular head 21 of door 18 is provided with a number of holes 23, arranged in a semicircular line, whose distance from pin 19 is equal to the distance between pins 19 and 17. Pin 19 is provided with a ratchet and pawl 22. The knob and tongue 26 011 door 18 and the catches 27 on the opposite door-jambs 3 form a latch for holding the door open and shut.

The remainingfeatures of construction will sufficiently appear from the drawings and from the mode of operation of our invention.

Such being the construction of our improved closet, its mode of operation is now to be described. hen the closet-is unoccupied, door 18 is held by the latch in sucha position as to stand within the closet, where it occupies the before-mentioned semi-cylindrical space, which is seen unoccupied in Fig. 2. The door when in this position is disengaged from pin 17 and is easily rotated in the direction of the arrows by the hand of any person seeking admission and raising the latch. \Vhen in the course of such rotation the door reaches the position which is indicated in Figs. 3 and 4, free admission onto floor (3 is allowed to any number of persons whose united weight does not exceed that predeter mined weight which is sutficient to balance weight 11. in its position of preadjustment upon lever 12. If any load in excess of such predetermined weight be placed upon floor U, the latter, being slightly depressed thereby, presses downward upon the levers 9, so that soeket-piece 11 is caused to act upon lever 12. The movement of the latter being communicated by rod 15 and lever 16 to pin 17 causes that pin to press downward into or upon the line of holes 23. Thus the door is locked and must so remain until, the ex.- ccssive portion of the load is removed from lioor 0. 3y a proper preadj ustment of weight 11 upon lever 2 it is easy to predetermine the number, or, strictly speaking, the weight of persons to be admitted to the closet together. The operatives who are so admitted, being usually thus limited to one or two in number, may then for purposes of seclusion further rotate door 18 in the same direction until it reaches The position which is represented in Figs. 1 and 2, where it is held automatically by latch 20' 27. This position. of

the door indicates to all external observers the occupancy of the closet. By unlatching and further rotating the door to a position opposite thatwhich is shown in Figs. 3 and 4 exit may be effected at that side of the doorway which is occupied by door 18 in Figs. 3 and 1. Such rotation produces an entire vacation of the closet, for the latter cannot be advantageously occupied by any person so long as the door stands open, and the door cannot be closed by turning backward on account of ratchet and pawl 22,

Such being the construction and operation of our invention, we claim 1. A semi-cylindrical compartment and a semi-cylindrical rotary door which is pivoted concentrically in the doorway of said apartment, and is adapted, when swung into said apartment, to exclude all persons therefrom, in combination with a ratchet and pawl limiting the rotation of said door to a single direetion, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. In a closet, a balanced floor, weighing mechanism supporting said floor, and a centrally-pivoted rotary door, in combination with locking mechanism which is actuated by said weighing mechanism and is adapted to engage said door, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In a private apartment, a balanced floor, weighing mechanism supporting said floor, a pivoted rotary door, and a ratchet and pawl limiting the rotation of said door, in combination with locking mechanism which is actuated by said weighing mechanism and is adapted to engage said door, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

1. A doorway of an apartment and a balanced floor of said apartment, in combination with an adjustable balance-weightaud a system of balancing-levers for the support of said floor, a rotary door of said apartment, and locking mechanism for engagement with said door, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names in the presence of two witnesses.

SAM U EL 1 I. NU'ITIING. EIHVARI.) PARSONS. GILES \V. BOWER. Witnesses:

\VILLARD EDDY, JOHN J. STONE. 

